How to Marry a Cowboy (Cowboys & Brides) (4 page)

The whole birthday crowd laughed. Mason grinned and said, “Thank you so much, Doc, but remember, paybacks are hell!”

“They really did get live goats.” Annie Rose poured another gallon of punch into the empty bowl and stuck nine candles on each end of the rectangular cake. “I thought maybe your friend was pulling your leg.”

“No, ma’am,” Mason said with a sigh. “I hope you can fix it as well as you think you can.” He’d known the woman only a few hours, but when she looked up at him with that smile, it seemed as if they’d grown up together right there in Whitewright, Texas.

She handed him a long candle lighter she’d found in a kitchen drawer. “I guarantee my medicine works, so don’t you worry. If it doesn’t, you don’t have to pay me a dime for my services for the next two days.”

“You are pretty sure of yourself,” Mason said.

Annie Rose didn’t look a thing like Holly, but the way they were working together and the warm feelings he was developing towards her reminded him of his late wife, and he felt as if maybe he was cheating on Holly’s memory, even though he was talking to Annie Rose about goats. He backed up a step and took a deep breath. He’d dated. He’d slept with a few women. But he never cheated on his wife’s memory and he wasn’t about to start now.

Doc guffawed and pointed his finger like a gun. “Remember this the next time you clean me out on poker night.”

“Come on, Djali, I’ll open presents and you can eat the paper,” Gabby said.

Mason picked up the camera to take pictures of the girls opening the rest of their gifts. He let the pictures of the women he’d dated the past seven years filter through his mind in a flash. He’d kissed them and even bedded them, but none of them put him on a spin cycle of heat and guilt the way Annie Rose had done since the girls found her on the porch.

Annie Rose sat down beside him. “It’ll be a tough night if they really want to take them in the house, but it will only be for one night, and it will be their decision not to ever bring them inside again.”

“How tough are we talking about? What’s involved?” he asked, breathing in her scent. Holly had a liked a floral perfume that he’d bought for her on their first anniversary, while Annie Rose smelled fresh and crisp, like apples and cucumbers and fresh air all blended together.

“You got an old playpen in the attic? Maybe one the girls used when they were babies?”

“There’s probably more than one up there.”

“That’s even better. If they put up a fuss to keep them in the house, then bring two down, and we’ll make a makeshift cover for them, so the goats can’t get out. Then they have to put it beside their bed with the rule that they will take care of the goats all night and clean up whatever mess is in the playpen before breakfast tomorrow morning.” She smirked at him, and Mason couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“That sounds like the voice of experience talking,” he challenged.

She nodded. “One night with a smelly goat bawling and then cleaning up the playpen the next morning and I was more than ready to take my goat out to the pen with the other goats.”

“You are a wise woman, but are you big enough to make them actually clean up those playpens? They are tough and there are two of them.”

“Yes, I am. This could be an interesting summer if you still want me after Tuesday.”

“You must be pretty sure of those credentials I’m checking out,” he said.

“I am. Can you get a real pen built for them first thing tomorrow morning? It should be right outside the yard fence, so the girls can get to them easily and yet I can keep watch from the kitchen window. Make it big enough for two goats and two girls to romp and play in it.”

The last of the party crowd kicked up a cloud of dust as Doc Emerson drove away from the ranch. The girls and Mason waved good-bye at the gate, and then Gabby tugged at his arm. “Daddy, we can’t leave our goats here, because they’ll fall in the swimming pool and drown, and we can’t put them in the yard, because they can get out of a rail fence.”

“We’ll put them in the pasture with the new calves until tomorrow. I’ll get Skip to build a pen for them right next to the yard tomorrow morning,” he said.

“But, Daddy, they will be scared of those big old cows,” Lily fussed.

“What do you want to do, sleep with goats?” Mason asked. “Have you smelled them? And remember, they don’t use a litter pan like O’Malley.”

“Not in our beds.” Lily rolled her eyes.

“We was thinkin’ maybe in the bathtub just for tonight,” Gabby said.

Annie Rose stopped shoving wrapping paper into an oversized black leaf bag and asked, “What if they accidentally turned on the water and drowned because they couldn’t get out of the tub?”

“Well, that ain’t going to work, is it?” Lily said quickly.

Mason’s phone vibrated in his hip pocket and he quickly removed it, held up a finger to the girls, and walked away from wrapping paper, presents, goats, girls, and Annie Rose.

“Hello, Jeremiah. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until tomorrow,” he said.

“It only took a couple of phone calls. Annie worked as a nurse in Beaumont. Rose worked as a librarian assistant in West Texas. The rest took a little longer, but we got it sorted out. Nick was dating her when she was Annie and they were even engaged but then she disappeared. According to my sources, he was furious and said that she’d pay for embarrassing him. But about six weeks ago he found a new playmate, who organizes fundraisers for various organizations. That is probably why he was out there in Odessa. Candy James, honest to God, Mason, that is her name, was in charge of that bridal showing in Odessa that your girl was a part of. It’s possible that he didn’t even pay attention to the models, but even if he did, scuttlebutt has it that he’s quite taken with Candy and has finally gotten over Annie,” Jeremiah said.

“What’s your gut feeling?” Mason asked.

“My gut feeling says that Nick has a nasty reputation and that she’d be smart to lay low until Nick and Candy get a lot more serious in the relationship. But if I was you, I’d hire her on the spot. She’s got nurse’s training and she’s been raised on a ranch and she was a librarian, so she’s kind of like a teacher, a tutor, and even knows ranchin’ business all rolled into one woman. And you said that the girls are taken with her. So I think it’s probably a win-win situation,” Jeremiah answered.

“And if Nicky comes around here?”

“Nicky is mostly all belt buckle and no cowboy, but if he does come around Whitewright, shoot the bastard.”

Mason chuckled. “Send me your bill.”

“Sure thing. And good luck.”

***

Annie Rose tied the top of the garbage bag shut and set it to the side. “I need one more bag.”

“I’ll go get it for you, Mama-Nanny,” Gabby said and yelled back over her shoulder as she ran across the patio. “Lily, you watch my goat and don’t let him eat my new Barbie doll’s hair. Kenna got one at her last party and her goat plumb ate every bit of its hair before we saw what was happening.”

Lily nodded seriously. “And it ate up a Monopoly game too. Daddy, can we please, please, please keep our baby goats in the house?”

Mason put his phone away and said, “It’s not up to me. I’m going to offer Annie Rose the job as the new nanny around here for as long as she wants to stay with us. So you have to ask her about goats in the house.”

Gabby came back with the trash bag and handed it to Annie Rose, who went right on sorting through the paper to make sure no toys or books were lost in the trash pile.

“Gabby, Mama-Nanny is staying. Daddy said she can stay as long as she wants!” Lily yelled so loud that the goats stopped licking at paper scraps and huddled together.

Annie Rose shoved her foot into the bag, stomped down the paper, and then crammed more into it. When that was done, she folded the plastic tablecloth around all the messy plates, empty cups, and half-eaten hot dogs, and forced it into the bag too.

“Room and board plus minimum wage if you’ll do light housekeeping and some cooking,” he said.

She wiped her hand on her fanny and stuck it out. “Deal.”

After the thoughts that had snuck through her mind all morning, she wasn’t a bit surprised at the reaction skin-on-skin contact brought about. Thank goodness the extra beat in her pulse didn’t radiate through her fingertips.

He shook. “You hear that, girls?”

“Yay!” They high-fived each other with their left hands.

“So now you’ve got a new nanny, and she’ll make the rules about the goats.”

Lily crossed her arms. “Can’t we call her Mama-Nanny?”

“You’ll have to talk to her about that. Since she’s the one y’all have picked out, then you can work out the details with her.” Mason winked at Annie Rose.

Annie Rose shrugged. “It’s fine with me, but remember, before you decide to call me Mama-Nanny, know that a mama can boss you even more than a nanny. So you might want to think it over or at least talk about it first.”

Annie Rose kept stuffing paper into the second trash bag without even looking up, knowing that if she met Mason’s eyes, she’d spontaneously combust. He was a damn handsome man, and when he winked at her like that, her insides flat-out turned to mush.

Lily nodded. “We understand.”

“Okay then, I’ll be your Mama-Nanny if that’s what you really want me to be,” Annie Rose said. Lord, how did anyone tell those two darlings “no” about anything?

“If a Mama-Nanny can act like a mama and make decisions like a mama, then I want to talk about them dumb old piano lessons this summer. I want to play the fiddle like Grandpa did,” Lily said.

“No one around here can teach you, and I’m not driving to Dallas for fiddle lessons every week,” Mason told her, crossing his eye-candy arms over his gorgeous chest.

“Grandpa’s fiddle is here. You could hire someone to come to the ranch and teach us,” Lily said.

“You got a fiddle in the house?” Annie Rose shouldn’t stay, not with the way Mason Harper affected every sense in her whole body, mind and soul.

Mason nodded. “We have my grandfather’s, and his banjo too.”

Gabby threw up her hands then quickly grabbed for the ribbon around Djali’s neck before the goat took off. “Don’t look at me. I don’t want to play anything. I want to be a rancher and raise cows and sing. Lily is going to grow up and play the fiddle, and I’m going to sing in the band. We aren’t going to let Damian play the drums, though. He’s not any good. And if Lily don’t have to go to piano, then I don’t have to either, right?”

Annie Rose smiled at the girls. They were going to be a handful, but she’d been taught by the best. Her mama had been a damn fine teacher when it came to discipline and raising an ornery child.

“I could give Lily a few fiddle lessons, just for the summer, and then if she didn’t like it, she could go back to piano lessons, but that’s your decision, Mason. I’ll make the one for the goats. You have to make the one for the music lessons.”

“You play?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and looking at her appreciatively.

“Since I was four. Not the violin, the fiddle, as in country music,” she said.

“Like Alison Krauss. You play like her?” Lily’s cute little bow-shaped mouth formed a perfect O.

“Honey, I’m not nearly that good, but I could probably teach you the basics,” Annie Rose said. “And, Gabby, I don’t sing, but maybe you could practice your singing while Lily is learning to play. If that’s okay with your dad.”

Mason thought about it long enough that both girls grew impatient; forgot about the goats, and threw their arms around his waist and begged in unison, “Please, Daddy, please, even if it’s only for the summer.”

Just when her heart had resumed its normal thump, he winked over the top of the girls’ heads at her. Where was her resolve to never let another man charm his way into her heart? Had it sunk to the bottom of that farm pond along with her car?

“Okay, but only if you really practice hard. Your mommy wanted you to play the piano like she did, but if you want to take three months off, I’ll let you,” he said.

Annie Rose fussed at herself. She really needed to learn when to keep her mouth shut and quit trying to fix every problem. Talk about what goes around comes around; now it was her turn to listen to the screeching whine of the fiddle during practice sessions like her mother had to when Annie Rose was a little girl and wanted to play like Charlie Daniels.

Gabby took a deep breath. “Okay, Daddy. I’ll make her practice every day.”

“And you have to practice your singing, too,” Mason said.

Now that was double-damn-duty punishment. One playing. One singing. At least Annie Rose’s mother only had to listen to the one playing, but then she’d told Annie Rose that she’d have to pay for her raising someday and it would be with high interest.

“Can we start tomorrow?” Lily asked.

How could a woman get so drawn into a family in one day? She’d vowed after the fiasco with Nicky that she would never trust another soul, and she’d already offered to give lessons, clean house, and cook for less money than she’d ever made in her entire life. That involved trust, didn’t it? Trust that Mason wasn’t another Nicky who would wind up mistreating her. Trust that she could actually corral those two little feisty blonds and teach them something at the same time. Trust that she could still read people enough to know that these were good people.

That was one hell of a lot of trust.

She could almost hear her mother saying, “It’s all in the eyes. They are the windows to the soul, and if you are honest, you’ll see the person through his eyes.”

She wished she’d done that when she fell for Nicky. Looking back, there had always been a veil over his eyes that never lifted. And no matter how hard she tried to be what he wanted, she couldn’t fix the problems that he had with control and anger that were worse than a drug addiction. Mason’s eyes were warm and she could not only see but feel the love and worry in them when he looked at the little girls.

“Well?” Lily asked.

“Of course we can start tomorrow,” Annie Rose said.

“Oh, Djali!” Gabby stomped her foot.

The goat was rooting around inside the still-open garbage bag. When he raised his head, there was pink cake icing on his beard and a piece of paper dangling from his mouth.

“Jeb!” Lily squealed and dashed off to the side of the pool where Jeb was kneeling to drink the chlorine water. “You can’t have that. It will make you sick.” She tugged at his ribbon leash and it broke. The momentum caused her to fall into the pool, and the goat took off toward the jungle gym, bleating like someone was trying to kill him.

Mason chuckled, then he laughed, then he guffawed so loud that it bounced off the clear blue sky and echoed off the far reaches of the state of Texas. Annie Rose’s dad had laughed like that and she always loved hearing it, but this man sure wasn’t her father. No, sir! He was a gorgeous cowboy who wore his jeans just right and had lips that begged to be kissed and a body that… dear God in heaven, he couldn’t even laugh without sending her thoughts spiraling into places they had no place going. He probably had a girlfriend or maybe even a fiancée, and even if he didn’t, she was the nanny and that was all.

“It’s not funny, Daddy!” Lily swam to the far end of the pool.

“Yes, it is funny. Let’s get those pesky critters out in the calf pen, and then we’ll move Annie Rose into the nanny apartment.”

“Which is where?” Annie Rose asked.

“Last door on the left off the foyer. It’s yours as long as you want it.”

Annie Rose smiled. “If I like the job at the end of the month and if the girls still like me after tonight and you still want me to stay, we’ll shake on a new deal then. I don’t want you to offer something you’ll regret later.”

“If you last a month, it will be a miracle.”

“So do we get to keep the goats in our room, Daddy?”

“Ask Annie Rose about goats in the house. She’s the new Nanny-Mama,” Mason said, shaking his head and still chuckling quietly.

“And it’s Mama-Nanny. Mama comes first,” Gabby said.

“How far is it from their bedrooms to my apartment?” she asked.

“Down the stairs and across the foyer,” he answered.

“Your dad says there are a couple of old playpens up in the attic that he will bring down for you. Jeb will go in one beside your bed, Lily, and Djali goes in one beside your bed, Gabby. If you bring them in the house for the night, they are your responsibility. You have to take care of them and then clean out the playpens tomorrow morning before breakfast. Understood? Your father is not going to clean the messy playpens, and neither am I. You still want them in the house?”

Gabby tilted her chin up a notch. “A nanny’s job…”

Annie Rose laid a finger on her lips. “A mama’s job is to teach her children responsibility. They can stay in the pen with the calves or you can babysit them all night and clean the pens tomorrow morning. Those are your options, and you have to get a bucket of soapy water and clean the dust and spiderwebs off the playpens first if you want to use them.”

Annie Rose had turned into her mother. Elizabeth Boudreau’s spirit had been resurrected inside her the minute that she took on the job of taking care of those little girls.

“But it’s our birthday,” Lily said.

“And they are your goats. I don’t want to sleep with them in my room, and I don’t want to clean up after them tomorrow morning or listen to them whine all night. So you have a choice. Calf pen or playpens,” Annie Rose said.

Gabby and Lily put their heads together and whispered, gestured, frowned, and Annie Rose’s sharp ears picked up a couple of swear words. She finished cleaning the patio, tied another plastic garbage bag shut, and handed it to Mason.

“How about some cowboy hash and vegetables for supper?” she asked. “The girls have had enough junk food for the day.”